Previous 10: 1 September

The Previous 10 Batch of 2008 titles were surprisingly strong this time around, with only one hitting the Bad category. If you're keeping tabs, Vicky Cristina Barcelona has the strongest shot at making my top 5 for the year come December. Enjoy!

La Crème

A Girl Cut in Two [La Fille coupée en deux] - dir. Claude Chabrol - France/Germany - IFC Films - with Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît Magimel, François Berléand, Mathilda May, Caroline Sihol, Edouard Baer

Joy Division - dir. Grant Gee - UK/USA - Weinstein Company

Married Life - dir. Ira Sachs - USA/Canada - Sony Pictures Classics - with Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams, David Wenham

Times and Winds [Bes vakit] - dir. Reha Erdem - Turkey - Kino - with Taner Birsel, Nihan Asli Elmas, Köksal Engür, Sevinç Erbulak, Selma Ergeç

Up the Yangtze - dir. Chang Yung - Canada - Zeitgeist Films

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - dir. Woody Allen - Spain/USA - MGM/Weinstein Company - with Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Kevin Dunn, Pablo Schreiber

Les Autres

The Art of Travel - dir. Thomas Whelan - USA - First Look - with Christopher Masterson, Angelika Baran, Johnny Messner, Brooke Burns, James Duval, Shalim Ortiz, Jake Muxworthy

Holding Trevor - dir. Rosser Goodman - USA - here! Films - with Brent Gorski, Melissa Searing, Eli Kranski, Jay Brannan, Christopher Wyllie

Team Picture - dir. Kentucker Audley - USA - Benten Films - with Kentucker Audley (as Andrew Nenninger), Timothy Morton, Amanda Harris, Shawna Wheeler, Greg Gaston, Terry Hamilton

The Bad

Hamlet 2 - dir. Andrew Fleming - USA - Focus Features - with Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joseph Julian Soria, Elisabeth Shue, Skylar Astin, Phoebe Strole, Melonie Diaz, Amy Poehler, David Arquette

She's lost...

Much to my surprise, I read that the Ian Curtis biopic, Control, will also be premiering at Cannes this year. It opened the Director's Fortnight to positive reviews and appears to not be the disaster it was initially conceived as (starring Jude Law (boo!) as the tragic singer of Joy Division). The film stars Sam Riley, a newcomer, as Curtis and Samantha Morton as his wife. I was also initially upset that Sean Harris, who played Curtis to an amazing likeness in 24 Hour Party People, was not cast, but based on the stills and the press, Control might not be as frightening as we, Joy Division fans, had once thought.